Browsed byCategory: Books

In the UK, February is LGBTQ+ History Month. Turns out, this is a little bit confusing, because in the US, LGBTQ+ History Month is in October and February is Black History Month. For the record, Black History Month is in October in the UK. I don’t know who decided this, or what they were trying to achieve by reversing those, but it’s managed to thoroughly confuse a few people I’ve talked to recently. Oh, and LGBTQ+ History Month isn’t the…

Over the past month and a half, I’ve been making a serious effort with my book blog, as well as joining the (sometimes intimidating) world of #bookstagram. Every day since early August, I’ve posted pictures of books on Instagram, some of which have taken an hour or two to set up and take. (Others are, of course, much quicker.) Yet in that same period, I’ve also been struggling to find time to read, and the two things aren’t unrelated. Obviously,…

I thought that at the end of every month, I’d do a little round-up of what’s been happening on my book blog and Instagram (since the latter is now dedicated to photos of books, a hobby which is taking far too many hours of my life). I won’t share everything here — after all, I need to give you some reason to follow me on Instagram and my book blog! — but here are a few highlights. 5 most viewed…

I went to a talk about LGBTQ+ representation in YA books called “The GaYAgenda” tonight, as part of Cambridge’s queer history month. The talk was given by a panel: Fox Benwell, Erica Gillingham, and Wei Ming Kam. At the end of the session the panelists were talking a bit about what they’d like to see in YA fiction: what tropes would they happily never see again? And what did they want to see more of? One answer came up in…

Okay, I know I said I wanted to try and keep my book blog and my main blog separate, but … it’s also nice when people actually read the book blog. So I thought I’d give a quick roundup of what I’ve been posting over there this month, and if any of that sounds interesting to those of you who don’t normally read it, maybe you’ll be moved to hop over there and check it out. (Who knows, maybe I’ll…

As the clock ticked over onto my 22nd birthday, I was in the process of filling in a job application with a dislocated thumb. Or something similar, anyway. I’m still not entirely sure what it is my hand does when I’m using it and it suddenly stops working and starts hurting a lot, but it’s probably some manner of subluxation, since I’m hypermobile. It’s been dodgy ever since. Truth be told, I’ve had a fair amount of pain in my…

I hope 2017 isn’t starting as it means to go on, because I’ve spent the past four days ill to the point of being stuck in bed, unable to read or watch TV or do, well, anything. My latest novel has been as neglected as my French coursework (for which the deadline is rapidly approaching), and I’ve had to resort to listening to audiobooks to avoid dying of boredom. Me and audiobooks, we’re not the best of friends. I mean,…

Do I still think last week’s socialising was worth the effort, even after I slept until 6pm on Tuesday and was kind of out of it the rest of the week too? Yeah, probably. I just no longer feel quite so much like I beat the Fatigue Monster. I think it was letting me win, and then it came back twice as strong. I’m back at home now, having packed up all my stuff and said goodbye (for now) to…

I decided, as part of my new mission to Actually Post Semi-Regularly (it warrants capitalisation), to participate in the Autumn Book Tag. I got this tag from Engie @ Musings From Neville’s Navel, although she didn’t actually tag me in it. It was a rare book tag in that looking at the questions, I could actually think of answers to most of them, so I decided to give it a go. What is your favorite thing about autumn? The fact…

I promised myself I was going to blog about YALC immediately after I came back — that’s the Young Adult Literature Convention, for those who aren’t aware, which takes place in conjunction with London Film and Comic Con. However, I picked up some kind of stomach bug while I was there, and I was also so completely exhausted that I’ve spent the last couple of days doing as little as possible and hoping I feel better soon (that’s what the…